Manchester City Football Club of England will be allowed to participate in the next season’s UEFA Champions League.
This is coming after the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) overturned the two-year ban that was earlier placed on the Citizens by the UEFA’s club financial control body (CFCB). The two-year ban, placed on Monday 13th June 2020, was for alleged violation of club licensing and financial fair play rules.
It should be recalled that far back in February, UEFA had banned Manchester City from all European competitions for the next two seasons. Also imposed upon them was a fine of €30m for “serious breaches” of the FFP rules and refusal to co-operate with the investigation process. These allegations were however denied by Manchester City.
Furthermore, Manchester City had previously made attempts to have the case dismissed and ban overturned on procedural grounds, but these attempts were rejected by the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS).
In a twisted turn of events, the appeal by Manchester City was held over a three-day period via a video conference. The Apex Court for Sports ruled in favour of the Manchester-based club. This was made known in a statement released on the court’s website.
Although the ban was overturned, the Court of Arbitration ruled that Manchester City had “contravened Article 56 of the Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations”. Therefore, CAS concluded that Manchester City “shall pay a fine of EUR 10,000,000 to {the} UEFA, within 30 days from the date of the issuance of the arbitral award”.
This decision will ensure that Manchester City appears in the Champions League for the tenth time in a row when the next season’s competition kick-starts.
